In the Church of England, you can only be baptized once. But some transgender people are seeking a new liturgy to reintroduce themselves to God, and their community.

Yvonne Taylor: "I'm asking for a recognition of me."

April 26, 2019

In the Church of England, baptism can only happen once in a person’s lifetime. But what about transgender people, who have taken on a new name to conform to the gender with which they identify? Yvonne "Yve" Taylor, a 56-year-old transgender woman who lives in Exeter, loves her church but wants to be affirmed as the woman she is now – not the boy baptized by her family decades ago. “Keith in the physical sense is no longer with us. It’s Yvonne that lives, and Yvonne’s never been baptized,” she says.

Clergy disagree on motion to welcome transgender people

April 26, 2019

From the floor debate at the 2017 General Synod that determined whether the church would accept this new liturgy, we hear two Church of England clergy – one who favored affirming transgender people in a new liturgy – and one who opposed it – explain their reasoning. As a gay person, the Rev. Christopher Newlands says he understands how transgender people need to be embraced within the church, and why their acceptance needs to be “explicit.” Dr. Ian Paul calls the vote on the liturgy “a shame,” and argues that it was a pastoral response to an issue with theological, scientific and psychological dimensions that have yet to be fully explored.

Kim Normanton, independent radio producer Chris Newlands, parish priest and Vicar of LancasterIan Paul, minister in the Church of England and former professor at St. John's College

To read the document on pastoral guidance the Church of England has published, click here.